YWCA Job Search Education Project

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Snapshot

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In collaboration with Paula Christensen of Strategic Career Coaches (the project SME), I developed a 3-video employment series for YWCA Greater Green Bay’s “Women Empowerment Center”, as part of a grant provided by AT&T. This was a 2+ month project with a small budget. I met with YWCA personnel, learners, and the SME. The team decided on a graphic that would tie the 3 videos together and show the recommended order of viewing. You will see this element on the second and last slide of the videos. With permission, I’m showing 2 of the 6 (total) videos that were created (3 were developed in English, and 3 in Spanish).

Challenge: Build educational job search videos that aligned with grant-requirements and could help women, with highly varied backgrounds and interests, to secure meaningful employment.

Audience: Women ranging in age, education, race, ethnicity, religion, cultures, and life situations. Some audience members could have been experiencing trauma, homelessness, or mental health challenges.

Strategy: Trauma-informed pedagogy integrated with UDL prioritized safety, predictability, relatability, and flexibility throughout this training program. Lessons were delivered in both English and Spanish via videos (that could be stopped/started as needed and viewed/re-viewed at any time and from any location).

Impact: YWCA Green Bay program participants built modern job search skills that enabled them to secure meaningful employment.

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Process

Analyze

The organization had a very small budget for this project and they didn’t want to burden their program participants with shadowing or in-depth interviews. My learner analysis phase was limited to a single interview with a target learner and a brief meeting with the SME and YWCA Director. Despite the limited research opportunities, I was able to develop the Learner Analysis (featured to the right) which proved helpful in delivering on the learning objectives.

I also considered several provisional personas throughout development, including:

1. Isabel (a married, Spanish-speaking mother of four who will be pursuing retail positions)

2. Denise (an English-speaking, formerly incarcerated grandmother with some college experience and about five years left until retirement age), and

3. Fatimah (a young abuse survivor from a Middle Eastern culture, who has never been employed and is battling limiting beliefs about women and employment).

A needs analysis meeting was conducted with a key leader of YWCA Green Bay, our SME, and a potential learner. The instructional problem was defined and learning objectives were determined. They were:

  1. Learners will successfully create a viable resume for their position of choice.

  2. Learners will execute a fruitful job search using common methods (e.g., applications, job boards).

  3. Learners will present themselves as a prepared professional in employment interviews.

Design

The team participated in two ideation sessions that generated the video series solution, the need for a graphic that shows the series order within each video, and the desire for a lead-in slide that showcased the YWCA mission.

The project SME and I produced outlines of the appropriate content for this learner group and learning objectives. The organization provided their Brand Standards and, based on their required colors and fonts, I prepared a Style Guide in Figma (see right).

I created and presented multiple design mockups for consideration (see the three images to the right). It was important to utilize colors that complemented the brand’s bright orange color. The team selected the blue option and it’s proposed layout.

Last, a storyboard was created in PowerPoint for each video and then uploaded into Google Slides. The SME reviewed these files online and noted requested changes.

Develop

  • ADDIE Design Process

  • Curriculum Development

  • Assessments

  • Storyboarding

  • Style Guide

  • Midjourney AI

  • Revoicer AI

  • Bard AI

  • Accessibility Standards

PowerPoint slideshows were created from the storyboards (see a few slide examples to the right). The slideshows covered all storyboard content for the 3 main videos.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)-generated audio clips were created in Speechify and incorporated into PowerPoint in order to coordinate animation and audio timing. Please note these clips were created in 2023 and AI voiceovers were not as polished at that time.

The final slideshow videos were exported from PowerPoint into Movavi, where background music and unique transitions were added.

All slide text and audio scripts were translated into Spanish with the help of Google Translate, Bard (now Gemini), and a native Spanish-speaking connection (to confirm accuracy). Translated narration was then re-recorded (via AI) in Spanish and these versions were set to background music in Movavi.

Unfortunately, the organization’s small budget did not cover hours for usability testing, so this step had to be skipped over.

Implement

The videos were delivered electronically to YWCA ahead of the project deadline and the organization began using them as part of their Women’s Empowerment Center services in Fall 2023. I was not involved in the implementation phase of the project since ID services were not needed for this phase.

Evaluate

Initially, the client did not want assessment as part of the project scope. Since the solution needed to be exclusively videos and handouts (no opportunity for formative assessments), I advised that we conduct surveys to ensure that: 1) learning goals were achieved, 2) future iterations of the content could leverage learner feedback, and 3) future grant requests could include efficacy data. With this insight, YWCA Green Bay decided to expand the scope.

Both English and Spanish learner surveys were created using Typeform. I developed a pre-survey, post-survey, and 60-day follow-up survey to assess video efficacy and long-term knowledge retention.

Early respondent feedback showed improvement in learners’ job search confidence. Additional insights will hopefully be gleaned as the Center uses the surveys over time.

Skills Used

  • Job Aids / Handouts

  • Video Production

  • Video Editing

  • Language Translation

  • AI Voiceovers / Narration

  • PowerPoint

  • Movavi Video Software

  • Figma

  • Adobe Photoshop

  • Adobe Illustrator